James Adams
James Adams (formerly James Choke) is the main character of the first CHERUB series. He appears in the second series after becoming a mission controller. Profile Academic James has an IQ of 153, and his prowess at maths is commonly noted, with him taking his A-levels in Maths and Further Maths a year early while also teaches Maths to younger members of CHERUB. Personality James starts off as a cocky, arrogant and spoiled boy, but he deeply cares about his sister, to the point of staying at CHERUB so that she has a good life. He is shown countless times in the books to be hot-tempered and ferocious, but still remains selfless, brave and an unfailingly good person. He has questionable loyalty in his relationships as he is easily tempted by pretty girls, but cares deeply for Kerry Chang throughout all the books. He is intelligent, displaying considerable skills in language and mathematics. History Early Life James was born James Robert Choke in Tufnell Park, London on October 23, 1991. He lived with his half-sister Lauren and his mother, Gwen Choke, who ran the largest shoplifting empire in North London from an armchair in their living room. James didn't know who his father was, though it is revealed in a deleted passage from Divine Madness that he was a mathematics professor. When James was two years old, his mother gave birth to his half-sister Lauren Onions and married Lauren's father, Ronald (Ron) Onions, who was verbally and physically abusive towards James. However, despite Ron not living with them, James despises him, particularly since he only visits when he wants money from Gwen. 2003/2004 The Recruit When James was in his science class, he reacted violently to Samantha Jennings' mocking of his mum being fat, and accidentally smashed her face into an exposed nail. He then shoves over a tacher on his way out. Fleeing home before he can be punished, James finds his mum drinking with Ron, in spite of her being told not to due to taking drugs following a surgery. Despite his attempts to explain what happened at school, Gwen sends James away to get Lauren from school and get them both dinner. However on their way back home, James was beaten up by Samantha's older brother Greg, with the promise of more beatings to follow. Upon returning home, he sees his mother, apparently asleep, and for a while does not realise that she is dead until he tries to wake her up to tell her about the incident at school. James was then re-located to the Nebraska Children's Home, but because Ron didn't want him, only Lauren went home with Ron. While later collecting his things from his flat, James breaks into his mother's old safe and takes her money so that Ron can't get ahold of it, and hides it in various places in his new room. James soon makes friends with his room-mate Kyle, but becomes annoyed when Kyle tricks him into wearing a tie from a girl's school. James then befriends Robert Vaughn, an older boy who leads a gang of teenage hoodlums. On his twelfth birthday, James is told to steal beer for the gang, however they trick him and leave him to be arrested. Having already been cautioned for his attack on Samantha, James is given a severe warning that if he doesn't get his act together, he'll likely end up in prison. He then heads back to the nursing home only to find that when he gets there the councillor wants to speak with him once she has lead him into her room she jabs him with a needle and he falls asleep. The next day, James wakes up in a mysterious building and meets Doctor Terrence "Mac" McAfferty, the chairman of CHERUB, who offers James a place at CHERUB, in return for agreeing to become an agent for British Intelligence. James enters the recruitment tests, during which he meets agent Bruce Norris (who easily overpowers James in a sparring match), and refuses to do a swimming exercise. However James succeeds in passing and is allowed to become a CHERUB agent. He is first sent back to the Nebraska House to collect his things, and learns that Kyle is also a CHERUB agent working on a recruitment mission, and that the home's councilor, Jennifer Mitchum, recommended him to CHERUB. Before they head back to Campus, James and Kyle exact revenge of some of Robert's gang by pouring sand and water in their room. Meeting his handler Meryl Spencer, James fronted up about his mother's money, which would be put into a trust fund for him, and chose the name James Adams for his new name. Before he could enter the 100-Day Basic Training program, James had to learn to swim, and was given swimming lessons by Amy Collins, though his slow progress forced Amy to have Paul and Arif make his lessons much scarier in order to make him fear them more than the water. James sneaked off-campus with Kyle and Bruce on a mission to London so that he could visit Lauren. After being caught out, James was reprimanded by Mac for going off-campus without permission, but was not punished. Upon entering basic training, James was partnered with Kerry Chang, who (having been through most of the course before but failed) offered to help him so long as he helped protect her injured knee. However on Christmas Day, James lost his temper with Kerry and stomped on her hand, resulting in a fight that Head Instructor Norman Large punished them by forcing them to spend the night outside in the cold. Despite Kerry's belief that they would get kicked off the course, forcing them to start again, James was determined to make it up to Kerry, and managed to get them though the night, allowing them to continue training. For the last few days of basic training, James and the other five trainees were taken to Malaysia for a survival course, which James and Kerry succeeded in before being awarded their Grey Shirts. Returning to CHERUB Campus, James learned that Lauren had been recruited into CHERUB after Ron had been arrested for smuggling. For the next few months, James adjusted to CHERUB lifestyle, hanging out with Kyle, Kerry, Bruce and others he had become friends with in basic training, Shakeel Dajani, Mo, Gabrielle O'Brien, and Callum and Connor Reilly, however no mission was offered to him. Amy revealed that she had asked that James not be offered any while he continued his swimming lessons, and that he was to accompany her on a mission in which he could easily play her little brother due to their similar appearances. James met mission controller Ewart Asker, who explained that the mission was to confirm connections between the eco-terrorist group Help Earth and some residents of hippy commune Fort Harmony. Under the name of Ross Leigh, James and Amy were sent to live with an informant resident, Cathy Dunn, to spy on Help Earth suspects Fire and World Dunn, Scargil Dunn, and Brian "Bungle" Evans. With an event named 'Petrocon' (the largest meeting of oil executives) occurring at nearby Green Brooke Conference Center, these three men were suspected of organising an attack against the meeting's attendees. While at Fort Harmony, James befriended brothers Clark and Sebastian Dunn, two boys who are frequently described as 'psycho', and developed a relationship with his first girlfriend, Joanna Ribble, despite the disapproval of her police officer father. The next day, James becomes extremely lazy and doesn't want to go to school. In bed, Amy teases him and he briefly tickles her foot. He lets his guard down in doing this, as is soon proven. Amy pins him down and tickles his sides. James screams with laughter and begs for mercy, so Amy stops, discovering his weakness. The rest of his day is overall bad. Soon James uncovered a lab of Fire and World's, where it was thought that they were transporting pieces of a bomb into the conference centre on mini remote controlled cars. However Ewart saw from photos James took of the lab that it was actually an anthrax and James was rushed to hospital with the fear that he may have been contaminated. After undergoing treatments, it was revealed that the anthrax was a very weak strain (used to immunise Green Brooke staff), and that James was healthy. Fire, World, and Scargil are arrested, and James and Amy returned to Fort Harmony to see if they could uncover information about Bungle following his escape, however the Fort was evacuated by police. With the mission over, James returned to campus where his performance was seen by Mac as out-standing, resulting in James been awarded the Navy Shirt, though some of his friends thought it was only because he had been thought to have been infected with anthrax. 2004/2005 Class A James is on a training mission with Bruce Norris in which they have to recover hostages from a villa on a Mediterranean island. The two boys had to jog 10km to the villa where two eight year olds were being held. The agents are currently on summer break on the island of C–– and James has really let his fitness go so he is struggling with the jog. The two finally reach the house after being battered by thorned plants and stepp slopes in the off-road section in the last kilometre to the villa. James manages to survey the house and does not see any security cameras, hoever upon entering the perimeter through the fence, James slides through some dog poo, which alerts the boys to the fact that there is a dog in the area. While James is just about chewed down by a Rottweiler, Bruce manages to break into the house and open the patio door, saving James's neck. The two then search the house for the hostages, pocketing a set of car keys to use as their escape. On finding the hostages, they attempt to flee in the car, however the car fails to switch on. James and Bruce exit the car only to be shot twice in the chest and have trails of red running down their shirts. It turns out that Kerry and Gabrielle shot them with paint guns and switched the keys on the chain. The boys get a scolding from their training instructor Norman Large and ultimately fail the exercise - so he leaves them to get back to their hostel themselves by midnight (if they manage to he raises the grade). The boys begin to run all the way back to the hostel only to be further humiliated when Kerry tells them that there was money for a taxi on the bench. Later that evening Bruce and Kerry get into a fight as the girls were still laughing at the boys' stupidity. Bruce ends up severely injuring Kerry's knee and runs away to skulk under his duvet after Meryl Spencer charges into the room demanding to know what has happened. Despite trying to explain, Meryl sends James, Bruce and Gabrielle home early Kerry is flown to hospital to have surgery on her knee. Kerry later apologises for her outburst and says that when she broke Bruce's leg he was cool about it so she is not trying to hold a grudge against him. Mac subsequently punishes James and the others (pointing out that James and Gabrielle are equally responsible due to the teasing that took place before the fight) by giving them laps and gardening duties. After two weeks, James is tired and barely able to fit in his homework with all of his lessons, training and punishment duties. Kyle offers to help him out, first by selling him the answers to some of his homework, then offering him a place on a mission he is part of. James is elated, until he realised Kyle conned him with the homework since he won't need to do it if he's away, but relents when Kyle says he'll use said money to get a girl James fancies, Nicole Eddison, on the mission as well. 2005 Maximum Security This particular book is about a mission James, his sister Lauren and Dave Moss have to go on. Their job is to make friends with Curtis Oxford, the fourteen year-old son of Jane Oxford, an illegal weapons trader who is on the FBI's most wanted list. And if that wasn't hard enough, they have to make friends with him in prison - and then bust him out. The Killing 2006 Divine Madness James goes on a mission to the Australian outback with fellow agents Lauren Adams and Dana Smith to infiltrate a religious cult called the Survivors. Lauren earns a black shirt and outranks her brother. Man vs Beast James goes on a mission with Lauren and Kyle to infiltrate a animal rights group, called the Animal Freedom Army (AFA). Lauren becomes a vegetarion after this. The Fall James Adams is in Aero City, Russia trying to help two MI5 agents buy some missiles off of Obidin. In the middle of the night, Obidin and four other men are found by James trying to find him. James ends up injuring the four men and runs out of his apartment. He is eventually found by a undercover CIA agent, who was acting as a security guard for Obidin. The CIA agent shows James some footage that shows the two MI5 agents killing Obidin. Meanwhile, Lauren is undercover in a children's home and is trying to find information from a girl named Anna. Anna was recently found off the coast on a broken shipwreck. Anna was of Russian descent. It turns out Anna was part of a human trafficking operation, and was part of a prostitution company. Most of the book is James in Campus. In the end James and Dana get black shirts for saving Edward Askers life. 2007 Mad Dogs James must favour with the dangerous Slasher boys or as we know Mad dogs a smuggling drug company that steals from its rival Major Dee.After many outbursts and smuggling Major dee declares war. James meets Junior again and Junior tries to rob a shop and goes to prison. 2008 The Sleepwalker .When a boy calls the anti terrorist helpline the intelligence form are mystified.A plane went down carrying over 300 passengers including ex former chairman Dr Mccafferty's wife and children.So they send Lauren adams and Jake parker to befriend the boy who called the helpline Fahim.Fahim soon uncovers that his Dad killed him Mum and overheard them speaking about the plane crash.As Fahim grows closer to Lauren and Jake they soon show their true identity and help Fahim. 2008/2009 The General Dark Sun and other stories( book of many short stories) 2009 Brigands MC James is sent to Salcombe in Devon in order to infiltrate the Brigands to solve weapen and drug smuggling and also the murder of the parents of fellow agent Dante Welsh, run by 'The Führer', a notorious criminal. 2010 Shadow Wave 2013 Black Friday 2014 Lone Wolf Relationship He has had a number of girlfriends since joining CHERUB including , April Moore (Class A), Kerry Chang (Class A, Maximum Security, The Killing, Divine Madness, Man vs Beast, The Fall, Brigands M.C forward), Rebecca "Becky" Little (Maximum Security), Hannah Clarke (The Killing), Dana Smith (end of The Fall - The General) and Ashley (Brigands M.C.). In the fall, he tried to have sex with Kerry in a hotel room, but Kerry was hurt by this fact and she was sobbing about it. He breaks up with her as Lauren told her when he saw Dana with her boobs snogging James when they were in James' room after her first solo mission , Kerry is completely broken hearted by this and is comforted by some of her friends, including Gabrielle. He had sex with Lois Thompson in her bathroom in Mad Dogs, when Lois surprised him while he was having a bath. He told Dana about this, and she was hurt, but he had sex with Dana Smith (mentioned in The General), a Spanish stripper named Reina Cardinas he met at the Biker's Tea Party in Brigands M.C, Kerry Chang since she was 16, and Amy Collins in the pool at the beginning of Black Friday before he got back together with Kerry He and Kerry are said to be 'surprised but delighted' to be expecting their first child. Missions * Befriend Brian Evans, an environmental activist living in a Welsh commune, who has suspected links to eco-terrorist organisation Help Earth. This mission won James the navy shirt. (with Amy Collins) (SUCCESS) * Infiltrate Keith Moore's Gang (KMG), a Luton-based gang who is Europe's biggest cocaine distributor (with Kyle Blueman, Kerry Chang and Nicole) (SUCCESS) * Befriend Curtis Oxford, who killed three people, incarcerated in an American prison and bust him out to track down the prisoner's arms-dealer mother, Jane Oxford. (with Dave and Lauren Adams) (SUCSESS) * Plant listening devices in the office of George Stein, a professor with suspected links to Help Earth (with Shak) (SUCCESS) * Befriend the family of Leon Tarasov, a shady businessman and small-time crook who has suddenly come into possession of several million dollars (with Dave) (SUCCESS) * Infiltrate Christian doomsday cult The Survivors in order to uncover links between the cult and Help Earth (with Lauren and Dana) (SUCCESS) * Infiltrate an radical animal rights organisation (with Lauren and Kyle) (SUCCESS) * Posing as the nephew of two MI5 agents trying to buy arms from a corrupt Russian businessman. This mission ended with the agents killed and James blamed, although he cleared his name after exposing the businessman who had paid the agents to kill the arms dealer and saving Ewart from an assassination attempt. This mission won James the black shirt. (FAILURE) * Use his previous connection to KMG to infiltrate the Mad Dogs gang to uncover their criminal activity and prevent a gang war (with Bruce Norris) (SUCCESS) * Infiltate Street Action Group, an anarchist organisation whose leader is trying to illegally purchase weaponry. (SUCCESS) * Infiltrate the Devon chapter of Brigands MC, a biker gang dealing in illegal arms.(With Lauren and Dante) (SUCCESS) * Act as mission controller to Andre Aramov in Ciudad Juarez, a town at the heat of the Mexico-US drug trade. (SUCCESS) * Had to have sex with all the girls on campus while being discret about it. (SUCCESS) Trivia * In the first several books James appears to be extremely ticklish. When his feet or sides are tickled, he screams with laughter and submits almost immediately. Because of this, all Kerry, Amy or any other girl has to do to subdue him is get him on the ground and tickle him. Category:CHERUB Agents Category:Characters